Deaths That Don’t Need To Happen

Death, it’s a weird topic to blog about, but for some reason it’s been on my mind, most likely because of the overly mentioned death of Indy car star Dan Wheldon. Wheldon was the sole fatal victim of a 15 car wreck which he would sustain injuries that would later be unsurvivable. Wheldon was a husband and a father of two. His boys will now grow up not seeing or knowing their father. The sad thing is, this wreck could have been avoided if other drivers had used a bit more common sense. I’m not placing blame on anyone, but it was lap 11 or 12 of a 300 mile race. It’s not like there was 5 laps to go. Even if some of those guys were desperate to impress sponsors they would have had plenty of time to try to do so later in the race without causing that wreck that killed Wheldon. Many different folks and fans expressed sympathy to the surviving family of Mr. Wheldon in the days after the terrible event.

Let’s take this situation to a global perspective and see how the opinion changes. People all over the world, especially in impoverished nations, have to suffer the loss of loved ones due to starvation and AIDS and other diseases. Why does this not shock us in the same way. We have the ability to prevent these deaths from happening, but we don’t do it. Is that acceptable?